Supreme Court issues major copyright ruling on foreign sales

la times ^ | 3/19/2013 | David Savage

[tobyhill]

The Supreme Court, in a major ruling on copyright law, has given foreign buyers of textbooks, movies and other products a right to resell them in the United States without the permission of the copyright owner. The 6-3 decision is a victory for a former USC student from Thailand, Supap Kirtsaeng, who figured he could earn money by buying textbooks at lower costs in his native country and selling them in the United States.

[JoeProBono]

[CGASMIA68]

Holy Crap

[afraidfortherepublic]

Outrageous!

[tobyhill]

Yep! It means once someone buys a movie or music for the first time then they are entitled to do whatever they want with it. From what I read, the student was buying over there, selling over here on our soil.

[free from tyranny]

Then what about meds??? What say you to that USSC?

[alancarp]

Exactly my thought - pharmaceuticals.

[longtermmemmory]

that is next.

[dfwgator]

The textbook publishing companies with their ridiculous overpricing brought this upon themselves.

[tobyhill]

Meds have to be inspected by the FDA first and be prescribed by a doc but in this case they used a “first sale” rule which opens the door for everything.

[GeronL]

sounds like the right decision

[Sacajaweau]

Happens every day. Many used/new bookstores around my town. Do you think they send their profit to the writer??

[Secret Agent Man]

I don’t see how they can ban anything from this, they have established the precedent.

[Sacajaweau]

Now if he copied the books and then sold them, that would be a whole different matter and a copyright violation.

[petro45acp]

First thoughts.....

WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT!!!!

On reflection, how is it, that creature scotus-penguinis-limpis is even dealing with international patent and trademark law? If it is USIP and proven to be USIP, then the IP owner or his agents decide if it can be sold or if royalties are required, NOT the fer govt.
KYPD what the he!! is going on here???

[tobyhill]

What if the company that bought the books gave him permission to copy the books?

[ThePatriotsFlag]

...uh. Maybe it is time to start over in this great experiment. Time to find the tea, a nice harbor, and a few like-minded RE-Patriots?

[tobyhill]

Overseas company purchases a Blue-Ray Movie for $5 a copy, turns around and sells the same copy over here for $8 but a company here buys it directly from the producers for $10 a copy and the company sells it for $15. Which one will you buy?

[Stevenc131]

Copyright holders would love it if they could forbid you to sell a used DVD on eBay, which is where we would be heading if the ruling would have gone the other way.

[brityank]

From what I read, the student was buying over there, selling over here on our soil.

Buying full price over there and providing the copyright-owner with the profit they agreed to. Now let's get that same Opinion for medications that are identical to the FDA formularies.

Interesting split - Kennedy, Ginsberg, and Scalia dissented.